The Israel Lobby's War on Al Manar TV

"Al Manar is being singled out by the US Israel lobby precisely because it excels as a responsible TV channel that demands and applies the highest industry standards and because Israeli and Western viewers trust its news broadcasts more than they do much of their own media"

An Advisor to the Dean, Columbia University School of Broadcast Journalism, New York City 12/26/09

Having inherited the Bush administration’s rising stack of terrorism lists, President Obama’s team had expressed interest in culling them “so they are more accurate and manageable and Americans experience less stress”, according to Homeland Security director Janet Napolitano.

These lists, plus the reported existence of others that have not been made public, are supposed to reduce the fear and stress on Americans just knowing there are such lists and that someone is ‘watching out’.

In many cases travelers experience more stress because they never know when Transportation Security Authority (TSA) agents at airports might eye a ‘hit’ on a computer screen, lunge into action and ruin a trip. Duplicate names on various lists plus the difficulty of getting oneself off the lists have led to increasing pressure on the Obama administration to refine the concept of who really is a terrorist. The various “T” and watch lists are swelling annually by thousands of names-some quite similar leading to confusion and uncertainly who really is and isn’t on and who is on but shouldn’t be and vice versa.

As of Christmas Eve, the ‘Terrorism Watch List’ reportedly included some 900,000 names with a "selectee" list with somewhere close to 30,000 people within the higher-risk category, and a "no-fly" list with an estimated 10,000 names of people who are not allowed to board planes. Today it’s anyone’s guess who is on but shouldn’t be and who is off but should be on. All passengers departing the US may face more delays and physical’ pat downs’ of any part of their bodies and possibly being watched in bathrooms, according to the TSA.

Calls are increasing for full body scanning devices to be installed and used on anyone who wants to fly. Meanwhile, on 12/26/09, President Obama issued instructions to his administration "that all appropriate measures be taken to increase security for air travel”.

As Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab is interviewed to find out how he got on a US bound flight, since he was alleged to have said he was in contact with Al Qaeda in Yemen, the US ‘T’ lists remain a riddle inside a mystery, wrapped in an enigma, as Winston Churchill once described both Russia and Jane Austen.

Updating the ‘T’ lists: How a Lebanese TV Station got included

One media outlet kept on two US Terrorism lists is Lebanon’s Al Manar TV Channel, affiliated with Hezbollah, leader of the Lebanese National Resistance.

The “case” against Al Manar has never been convincingly explained since the Bush administration, on December 17, 2004 added Al Manar to a post 9/11 terrorist list at the behest of Israel’s then Prime Ministry Ehud Olmert.

Historically the US government has used only obscenity and copyright laws to stifle the importation of "undesirable" foreign media. Back in the 18th century, Congress passed the Sedition Act of 1798, which made it illegal to "write, print, utter, or publish" or cause to be "written, printed, uttered, or published" any "false, scandalous, and malicious writing" about the government.

Outside of wartime, the U.S. government had previously declined the blocking of foreign media on national security grounds. The idea of banning a terrorist satellite channel when there is no clear and present danger to the citizenry has been rightly condemned.

In suppressing Al-Manar, the US Congress is saying that it shall determine what the American public can be trusted to know. During the Cold War, when the Soviet Union dedicated itself to the West's destruction, the US declined to block foreign media from reaching what former US Senator Wayne Morse of Oregon used to instruct his staffers, including this one, was “our great contribution to free people everywhere, and the American free market place of competing ideas.”

As Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote in the 1919 case, Jacob Abrams, et al. v. United States, “The ultimate good desired is better reached by free trade in ideas and the best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market, and that truth is the only ground upon which their (the public’s) wishes safely can be carried out."

According to Reporters without Borders, a press freedom organization, the Al Manar listing appeared unjustified given no offered evidence of the TV station being involved in terrorism. In addition, there was the fact that the Al Manar Channel was the first media anywhere to carry Hezbollah’s condemnation of the 9/11 attacks on New York’s World Trade Center. Reporters Without Borders urged the US authorities to "take care not to lump the fight against unproven anti-Semitism with the fight against terrorism and putting this TV station in the same category as terrorist groups worries us and does not strike us as the best solution." As if RWB foresaw H.R. 2278, the NGO warned, "We fear that this measure could be just the first of many others, and that all news media that have been accused of helping terrorist organizations in their coverage could end up on this list, in which case there will definitely be abuses."

The three other air terrorism attempts against the US were also denounced on Al Manar, including the latest one claimed by Al Qaeda, Hezbollah’s mortal enemy which on 12/28/09 called on “the people of the Arabian peninsula to attack American military installations, ships and "spying embassies." The U.S. Embassy in Yemen was attacked by Al Qaeda-affiliated terrorists in September 2008, and the U.S.S. Cole, a U.S. Navy destroyer, was hit by Al Qaeda in 2000. All these attacks were condemned on Al Manar. Beirut’s US Embassy and its personnel have been protected more by Hezbollah, from Al Qaeda and its affiliates, than the State Department would likely care to admit or may actually know about.

The main ‘evidence’ offered by the US State and Treasury departments for Al Manar being “anti-Semitic” for criticizing Israel was its showing the Syrian produced 29 Part television series, The Diaspora. Al Manar aired this series during October-November 2003.

The popular series surveys the history of the founding of the Zionist movement until the creation of the state of Israel. It includes discussions of some subjects sensitive to the Zionist movement including claimed Zionist-Nazi cooperation, alleged Zionist involvement in plotting the Russian Revolution, claims of Zionist pressure on US President Harry Truman to use Atomic bombs against Japan and later to recognize the establishment of the State of Israel on Arab land, ignoring the rights of the Arab population.

One example of claimed “Diaspora” anti-Semitism was the challenged statement of an alleged Zionist leader talking to Adolf Eichmann and telling the SS official, “Mr. Eichmann, believe me that if we Zionists were not Jewish, we would have been Nazis. You Nazis consider the Aryan race to belong to the perfect people and the German people as the most perfect. We also consider ourselves a perfect people, and Zionists, the most perfect ones.”

According to the US based Anti-Defamation League, this statement is not accurate but rather was based on the 1982 comment of Ariel Sharon in which he was reported to have said to Menachem Begin, while arguing in favor of invading Lebanon, “The Nazis of course were correct Prime Minister, they just chose the wrong people to persecute”, implying that killing of the Roma gypsies, homosexuals, the disabled, French and Russian prisoners, and Polish citizens was acceptable as was the likely 20,000 deaths estimated to occur during Israel’s invasion of Lebanon.

Stereotypical myths about Jews do appear in the documentary, as clichés. Specifically in the form of repeating the unproven 1840 accusation that the Damascus Jewish community murdered a priest and his assistant to obtain their blood for making Passover matzo, unleavened bread. The Diaspora series also includes some unproven accusations from the discredited 1891 Russian Protocols of the Elders of Zion about Rabbi’s sanctioning the killing of Christian children.

Al Manar management apologized for airing the series, dropped it, and explained that the Station had purchased it without first viewing the entire series. Al Manar’s lawyer at the time, Frenchman, Dinis Garreau added that the broadcast of the series had been "unfortunate" and asked for a chance to demonstrate that such airings would not be repeated, while adding that Al Manar’s management was in agreement that showing the series was a mistake, and that it violated Al Manar’s Professional Values and Principles for verifying information before it is aired.

He explained that Hezbollah is well known for its frequent differentiation between Judaism and Zionism, believing that Jews, as ‘people of the book’ are to accorded the same respect as Christian and Muslims (see “The Professional Values & Principles of Al Manar Channel, paragraph 19 and Al Manar’s Values and Principles pages, 6, 7.and 12, published by the Lebanese Communication Group, Beirut, 2009). On the other hand, as with most people in the Middle East, and increasingly beyond, Hezbollah believes that Zionism is a 19th Century racist colonial enterprise which must be expelled from Palestine, and Party is committed to the full Right of Return of those ethnically cleansed during the Nakba including their offspring-now living in 59 camps in Palestine, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon.

In 2004, the Diaspora series was shown in Iran. And then in Jordan during October 2005 on Al-Mamnou, a Jordanian satellite network. Not a murmur from the Bush administration was heard in either case about anti-Semitism and millions have since viewed the Diaspora series without apparent complications.

On 12/16/04, US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the decision to put Al Manar on the Terrorist Exclusion List (TEL—or ‘T list # 2’ in Department of Homeland Security lingo) was taken because of “Al Manar’s incitement of terrorist activity." Concurrent with this designation, Al Manar’s satellite signal was banned from broadcasting in the
United States. Al-Manar’s Foreign Editor Ibrahim Mousawi replied to BBC News, that the proposed ban resulted from "political pressure by the Jewish lobby". "We are not anti-Semites and we do not incite hatred," he insisted.

On March 23, 2006, at the request of Congress, the Department of the Treasury named Al Manar a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT- or ‘T list # 3’entity.) These two designations have stopped Al Manar broadcasts in the United States and prohibited material support to the TV Channel, blocked access to the organization’s assets and prohibited future transactions between U.S. companies and individuals and Al Manar. However, Al Manar continues to broadcast across the Middle East via Nilesat and Arabsat, two of the largest satellite providers in the region, and to many other areas of the world.

The Bush administration did not acknowledge Al Manar’s explanation, noted above, and the TV channel remains on the ‘T” list despite Obama’s expressed wish to ‘offer an open hand of friendship and mutual respect.”

Since the 1990’s, whenever prompted by the Israel lobby, Congress has called upon the Lebanese government to revoke Al Manar’s license and demanded that the Arab Stations Broadcasting Union revoke its membership. In H.Res. 1069, passed by the House of Representatives on September 9, 2008, Members of the 110th Congress called upon Saudi Arabia and Egypt, the primary shareholders in Arabsat and Nilesat, respectively, and all other Arab states that hold shares in Arabsat, to stop the transmission of telecasts by Al Manar.” The Lebanese government has consistently advised the US Embassy in Beirut that Al Manar fully complies with Lebanese licensing laws.

Al Manar’s programming, even if removed from NileSat and ArabSat, would still be widely available in Lebanon, where Al Manar is just one of many television stations affiliated with political parties and sectarian groups. Some analysts have argued that pressuring the Lebanese
government to take action against Al Manar, through conditions for U.S. assistance or otherwise would be counterproductive, as US government officials repeatedly assure Lebanon, as it did just last week, that “the United States of America does not take sides in Lebanon

Revised Standard to fit a political need

The US T List standard of “incitement of terrorism” has been recently changea, one reason being that for the past five years no evidence of “incitement of terrorism” involving Al Manar (or Hezbollah) has been documented by the CIA despite requests for proof from the US Senate Intelligence Committee. This failure of the CIA to support the Israel lobby case disappointed Tel Aviv and led AIPAC to craft a new standard which is now being which can be seen in H.R. 2278. The new applicable standard is “incitement of violence against American citizens.” This new language is believed by many lawyers and the Center for Constitutional Rights, based in New York, to be too broad to constitute a legal basis for prosecution. This view is not of concern to the US Israel lobby since its goal is a not judicial prosecution but rather intimidation--of more than 400 channels operating in 19 Middle East countries.

Lest other Middle East countries than Lebanon believe they can merrily escape the wide net of H.R. 2278, they may wish to consider a 12/16/09 report in the Egyptian daily Al-Mesryoon: “The American administration intends to threaten the blocking or reduction of American aid offered to Egypt each year in order to pressure the Egyptian government into discontinuing the broadcasting of a number of satellite channels ( reportedly at least ten in number) airing from Egypt via the Egyptian NileSat, under claims that they are violating the new ‘incitement’ standard and are attacking American policies in the region”

Al Manar as “inciter of violence against American citizens”

Concerning the claim that Al Manar is anti-American, a survey of programming at Al Manar reveals that the channel regularly invites American and western guests to discuss all manner of subjects. Indeed, American and western achievements and beliefs in human rights, scientific achievements, protection for women, are featured and openly admired. This reinforces the experience of Americans and westerners visiting the Middle East. They are almost without exception graciously received but their government policy of propping up, funding and arming Israel’s brutal occupation of Palestine that is resisted.

The evidence from scholars, including years of Al Manar program monitoring by Professor Anne Marie Baylouny, Assistant Professor of Comparative Politics at the Naval Postgraduate School in California suggests that H.R. 2278 is not even applicable to Al Manar and its programming, but rather that the Lebanese station is being scapegoated for purely political motives.

The claimed xenophobia of Hezbollah to the West is nowhere to be found in Al Manar programming and while political programs are critical of US Middle East policy, no more so than some programs aired in all 50 States in America. Often, on these programs, American scientific studies are used to support a debate thesis. Guests are international with many being from America, often with Lebanese expatriates.

Al Manar’s Professional Values & Principles as outlined in its publication by the Lebanese Communication Group, noted above, has been described as being as rigorous as any in the industry. And they are applied with respect to fairness, admitting mistakes, respect for women and youth, encouragement of dialogue, sensitivity for the public’s distaste for offensive materials and profanity, and working to achieve transparency, independence, and objectivity.

Al Manar strictly applies its standards for interviewing, respect for all religions, privacy, prohibition on secret recording, and ‘gotcha’ or ‘ambush’ interviews, disclosing sources and exhibiting respect for the audience.

Some examples of its rigorous application of these rules can be found in recent programs where: a hostess disconnected a caller who referred to an Israeli leader as “a dog”, a hostess ignoring a caller who insisted that Lebanon should look only to Islamic solutions for domestic problems, such as spousal abuse and not Western ideas, and Al Manar hosts or hostesses often correcting a guest for repeating stereotypes.

These are some facts about Al Manar that American and French citizens can’t learn by watching their TV sets at home given that this Lebanese Channel is banned in both countries in violation of international customary law and numerous conventions requiring protection for journalists, free access to the airwaves, and freedom of speech. Only by watching Internet free steaming can the French and American public watch Al Manar. It is apparent that those who cast their automatic vote to AIPAC to fast track H.R. 2278 did not bother to investigate Al Manar programming.

As Hezbollah has ‘Lebanonized’ following its 1992 entrance into politics and its expulsion of Israel in 2000, its dramatic changes are reflected in Al Manar TV programming. Al Manar demonstrates Hezbollah’s evolution over the past quarter century and the parties desire to reach out to its former adversaries by its integration with the multi-religious community that is Lebanon, particularly with programming for youth and women;

The bulk of Al Manar programs have nothing to do with Hezbollah, the resistance to Israel’s occupation of Palestine or Shia religious beliefs.

Women without veils dominate much of the programming with only about 90 minutes per day having to do with praying or religious subjects;

Christians are frequently invited as experts and audience members including priests, bishops and non-believers from the west without regard to personal beliefs;

Al Manar’s programming regularly promotes values considered western such as individual and human rights, and non-violence;

Al Manar programs frequently discuss subjects critical of aspects of a patriarchal system including examining domestic violence, rights of women, divorce, the abhorrence of so-called ‘ honor killings’ condemned by all sects in Lebanon, shared household chores; violent videos games, corporal punishment of children in schools and at home etc. Al Manar programs generally feature more of an Oprah style of discussion rather than a Pat Robertson or Fox TV approach. A common theme is encouraging civil society to volunteer and help those in society who need assistance;

Al Manar is viewed by a broad array of broadcasting analysts in Lebanon and abroad, as progressive in the sense that it focuses attention on women, youth, and civil society with multi-communal aspects of programming that is in contrast to the Lebanese norm of media promoting the sponsor’s particular confession.

Al Manar programming involves the participation all of Lebanon’s sects and the acceptance of diverse lifestyles and ideas beyond the communities with which Hezbollah is politically allied;

Programming eschews the affirmation of violence In daily lives, and tend to avoid religious preaching or proselytizing found on many western evangelical channels;

For the past decade there is no evidence in any Al Manar programming, as claimed by MEMRi and AIPAC of “bomb making classes."

Foreign soap operas, including unveiled and scantily-clad women and men’s and women’s personal problems are shown uncut and uncensored.

Al Manar is said by Ha'aretz to be the most popular TV Channel in much of the region during conflicts and for news of the Palestinian resistance. The reason is because of its trusted coverage and up to the minute reports, often with reporters embedded close to fighters at the front and resisters on the West Bank and in Gaza. It is also the most popular channel in Lebanon’s 12 Palestinian Refugee camps seeking reliable news about families members scattered around the region among whom there in increasing solidarity post 2002 Jenin and 2009 Gaza, facilitated by thousands of cheap Internet cafes.

Several of Al Manar’s programs parallel US and western public broadcasting such as PBS, featuring “Discovery” type features on animals, agriculture, the environment, nature and children’s programs including puppet shows warning about bad habits such as smoking, drugs, and alcohol.

The MEMRI claim that an Al Manar program showed puppets of children stabbing US President George W. Bush turned out to a fake as were two videos of cut and pasted excerpts of speeches of Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah and his deputy, former chemistry professor Naim Qassim. There speeches were critical of American policy for sure, but not once did either incite violence against American citizens.

Al Manar has won more International Awards for its programming than any other International Channels in its category, including more than 76 Awards for excellence in broadcasting between 1998 and November of 2009. One internationally coveted award was received from the 8th Cairo Television and Radio Festival where Al Manar won the most awards. In 2008 it was awarded the prestigious Thompson Prize from the BBC for the best documentary. Al Manar’s subject was Lebanon’s Pollution crisis.

A random sampling of Al Manar broadcasting awards during a 48 month period is illustrative of the scope and variety of reorganization the Channel received for its programming: Cairo Festival for Radio and Television Supreme Committee Award - the documentary film "Observatory" 1998, Beirut Documentary Film Festival prize for the documentary film "victors" 1999, United Nations Prize in Beirut-the first prize for "sustainable development" 1999 ,The first exhibition of the media Beirut Award "the best television station from" 200l, The first exhibition of the media Beirut Award "the best sports program GOAL" 2001, The first exhibition of the media Beirut Award "the best cultural program and pen N" 2001, Arab States Broadcasting Union Gold Award program "evidence of time" 2002, Ebona Festival - France award for a news report "Donkey stuck in the minefield," 2002.

A typical broadcast day at Al Manar starts with Prayers just like the other religiously oriented stations in Lebanon. Then the News, followed by Manar’s Morning show, a talk show, program for youth, travel, soap opera, and often five hours per day of live programs on issues of interest to the Lebanese such as social or family problems. The public is involved with guests and callers urged to participate. Most Al Manar programming is all about participation, dialogue, and discussion.

A teaching assistant at Harvard’s school of communications, studying Al Manar programming, offered her opinion: “Frankly, the same agility and competence Hezbollah exhibits on the battlefield its TV channel replicates on the TV screen. Al Manar is deliberative, analytical, state of the art, dedicated, and innovative. Both Hezbollah’s military wing and its TV Channel come from the same culture and if channeled, no pun intended, they will to continue to lead the way to remarkable achievements.”

Many Americans and Westerners in Beirut choose Al Manar TV News in English on the internet) for the latest news on Lebanon, Palestine, and the region because it is usually first in presenting details with accuracy as well as sound analysis.

Time for the State and Treasury departments of show their cards?

To say that there is no justification for the Al Manar TV Channel to be on the US Terrorism is an understatement. That any TV station is on the list is a disgrace and humiliation for fair minded Americans everywhere and makes a mockery of the First Amendment to our Constitution.

Al Manar will survive and likely its audience will continue to grow despite being targeted by H.R. 2278 and other efforts to silence its quality programming and to prevent the American public from judging for them the worth Al Manar’s programming.

Presumably, Lebanon’s President and new Parliament will make known their views of projects like H.R. 2278 to the White House and Congress and encourage the 22 member League of Arab States and the 57 member International Organization of the Islamic Conference to raise this issue publicly and demand that the US government drop this assault on free speech in the Middle East.

Now that Lebanon has a two year seat on the UN Security Council, which has the responsibility under the UN Charter to address “all threats to International Peace and Security”, the US Congressional effort to intimidate Middle East satellite providers and hundreds of TV Channels in the region will no doubt be placed on the 2010 Security Council’s agenda.

Franklin Lamb is doing research in Lebanon and can be reached at fplamb@gmail.com

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